Manager SelectionDecember 13, 2022

Nuveen Hires Head of Energy Infrastructure Credit

New role for Don Dimitrievich includes financing reduced carbon-emission capabilities.

Reported by Larry Light

Don Dimitrievich

Asset manager Nuveen is boosting its efforts in sustainability by hiring Don Dimitrievich to oversee its efforts in energy infrastructure, with an emphasis on financing renewable energy projects.

Having arrived in November from HPS Investment Partners, Dimitrievich will build a team focused on North American energy infrastructure credit as part of Nuveen’s private capital business. He has more than two decades of experience in this area, both at HPS and at Citi Credit Opportunities.

At Nuveen, which manages $1.1 trillion in assets, a large part of it for institutions, he will take charge of sustainable energy and the broader energy and power markets. Specifically, he will oversee debt and credit-like investments aimed to further assist companies’ efforts to curb carbon emissions, advance the electrification of the industry and ensure energy supply and reliability.

“Taking part in the global economy’s transition to a low-carbon energy future is a huge priority for our investors—and for Nuveen,” Bill Huffman, head of equities and fixed income for the firm, which is part of insurer TIAA, said in a statement.

“Inflation has driven up gas and electricity prices, causing widespread focus globally on energy availability, with concern rising about the need to ensure energy security and supply stability,” he wrote. “At the same time, there is also emerging consensus that climate change poses a significant risk globally.”

For the last 10 years at HPS, Dimitrievich was head of energy and power, a unit he established. Before then, he was managing director of Citi Credit Opportunities’ credit-focused principal investment group. He oversaw strategies for sustainable energy, among other things.

He will “complement existing capabilities at Nuveen,” Huffman said in the statement. Nuveen already has $14 billion in infrastructure assets, including AGR Partners, which provides equity and structured debt capital to agribusinesses and food companies; Glennmont Partners, which invests equity globally in clean energy generation; plus, provides credit for energy transition in Europe and diversified infrastructure private .

Dimitrievich will report to Laura Parrott, head of private placements who also oversees Nuveen Green Capital. He will also partner closely with Biff Ourso, global head of Nuveen Infrastructure, and with Glennmont.

Renewable infrastructure is part of a trend, as Nuveen’s hiring shows. U.S. pension programs are ramping up their infrastructure investments. In a sense they are playing catch-up. Canadian plans have been far more committed to infrastructure, especially in renewable energy.

On the federal level, there is new funding in this area: $370 billion in production and tax incentives aimed at spurring private investment in electric vehicles, cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar, and research into new technologies such as hydrogen conversion.